Phoenix Books Burlington is excited to host The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum for the launch of their new anthology, The Champlain Canal: Two-Hundred Years of Change!
About the book:
Have you ever heard of Mule Town? Port Despair? Those names may not appear on maps, but they had vivid meanings to the canal boaters who once transported goods on the historic Champlain Canal.
The sixty-mile Champlain Canal has never had the fame of the larger Erie Canal, known as the“Mother of Cities.” Yet the North Country’s own artificial waterway played a vital role in the region’s development. Now, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum of Vergennes, Vt., marks the recent two hundredth anniversary of the Champlain Canal with an anthology exploring how it shaped our past and present and matters to our future.
Opened in 1823, the Champlain Canal was one of the first major public works funded by an American state. Just as George Washington had hoped, the canal helped make commerce the “cement” of a new nation, writes New York State Museum curator Brad L. Utter. It connected New York City with lower Canada and spurred the growth of whole towns and industries.
The canal’s heyday ended in the late 19th century, when railroads took over passenger and freight traffic. But canoeists and other tourists repurposed the Champlain Canal as a gateway to the Adirondacks, helping turn Lake Champlain into the recreational “playground” it is today, writes Matt Harrison, sailing programs manager at LCMM.
One of the Champlain Canal’s attractions was the unique culture of those who worked its canal boats. Scott A. McLaughlin details how whole families inhabited some of these floating homes, complete with parlor organs and sewing machines, and developed their own lingo and lore. Other chapters reveal the archaeology of canal boats recovered from the depths of Lake Champlain; how the canal reshaped New York’s landscape; and how it fostered the spread of invasive species, such as the notorious sea lamprey and zebra mussels. Historical and modern photos help readers find the canal’s traces in the current landscape.
According to a recent task force report, the Champlain Canal could be poised for yet another reimagining. A fascinating read for any local history buff or canal enthusiast, The Champlain Canal: Two-Hundred Years of Change shows us that the canal is not “an antiquated remnant of 1800s infrastructure, but . . . a dynamic thread woven through two centuries of transformation.”
DATE: Wednesday, December 10, 2025 at 7PM
LOCATION: Phoenix Books, 89 Church Street, Burlington VT
ADMISSION: This event is free and open to all!
You may also like the following events from Phoenix Books Essex & Burlington:
